My first reef tank!

[crazyleo]

Woo! Time for more updates!

Turns out, when they said "Ships in 2-5 business days", they really meant 4 weeks... my tank arrived at 9:30 this morning! It's gonna be a long day...

So, after I got home, I unpacked all my goodies like a 6yr old on Christmas morning! First impressions are already good. It was retardedly well packaged.

Time to start the stand! After opening the boxes, I see the instruction manual. Open to the first page, and...

My god! The instructions are terrible! Despite all that, it was really easy to put together. It went together in about an hour with no swearing at all and it's solid... I even bumped into it nice and hard and it didn't twist or shimmy; which was unexpected since the pieces are surprisingly light.

Now, I've thrown out the mountain of garbage, leveled the stand(which was alot easier than I thought it would be) and since it's 11pm here, I'm off to bed. If all goes well, tomorrow the sump, doors and equipment go in, and hopefully the tank on Saturday. Stay tuned for more as it happens!

 

[keepingfishwithnoidea]

looking great

 

[crazyleo]

So another good day. Doors and sump are in.

After the doors, I got the tank prepped for the move tomorrow. After taking the box apart, I noticed that the angle brackets on the corners were the same size as all the power bricks so I decided to use them to mount the bricks on the wall.

I still have a rats nest on the right side, but after the tank and lights are on, I'm planning on cleaning up the wires...

So far, so good! Happy reefing!

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Looks great, just take your time and in a year you will look back at this and say to your self wow I've come a long way since then. I just got done doing maintenance on my reef and spent about an hour watching my handy work looking at my coral admiring each piece thinking about where I got it, how much it's grown. Each addition is adding to the living piece of art you are molding and creating. Always in flux, ever changing. Every where you look you see something new. Your fish have become friends and interact with you in a way they don't with anyone else. You stick your hand in the tank to do something and the cleaner shrimp comes over and jumps on it to clean. A fish comes and bumps your hand and starts swimming around it entertaining himself.
Welcome to the addiction


Steve

 

[crazyleo]

Another good day today! Exhausting, but got alot done. Got the tank moved in this morning. 6 of us made short work of getting it from the garage into the living room with no mishaps.

Put in all the plumbing and leak tested everything. No leaks so in goes the rockscape and the lights...

Got the sand in pretty quickly... Now comes the fun part of schlepping 190 gallons of water up from the garage 5g at a time lol

 

[Fishy Guy]

Can't wait to see her wet! That scape blows me away every time, looks great.

 

[keepingfishwithnoidea]

Now comes the fun part of schlepping 190 gallons of water up from the garage 5g at a time lol

Sounds Fun To me, Probably will experienc that next year

 

[Sleeping Giant]

look's great

 

[crazyleo]

Can't wait to see her wet! That scape blows me away every time, looks great.

Thanks! I've got 60g in so far...

My RODI makes 100 gpd, but i only have a 20g brute to mix the saltwater so it's slow-going. Hoping it'll be filled by tomorrow night...

 

[crazyleo]

look's great

Thanks!

 

[paccasofish]

So far, I've come up with this:

2 clowns(not sure which ones yet)
Yellow tang
Blue tang
Yellow longnose butterflyfish
Bicolor blenny
Striped blenny
Sailfin blenny
Royal gramma
Rabbitfish
longnose hawkfish
Coral Beauty

I wanted to add a small school of chromis, but everything I've seen just says they'll kill each other off till there's only 1 left so I'm still of the fence for them... at 50 bucks a pop, I'll probably be annoyed to watch them dwindle.

I have had chromis for a year now in 2 tanks and they are my favorite addition to this day but haven’t seen them go after each other

 

[rc8t6353]

Following along! The rockwork looks great!

 

[crazyleo]

Will are I have had chromis for a year now in 2 tanks and they are my favorite addition to this day but haven’t seen them go after each other

how many did you put in? I love the idea of a small school swimming around.

 

[paccasofish]

how many did you put in? I love the idea of a small school swimming around

how many did you put in? I love the idea of a small school swimming around.

I started with 6 but I know 5 can do well or whatever fits with the tank and existing friends.

 

[Reefer_Marc]

Also have some Chromis, but mixed feelings. They do look beautiful. Started out with 5, one died shortly after, and another one was bullied by the „alpha“ until he died. The alpha became really big and just went after everything in the tank, also my tang and nemos. They never swam as a school and the 3 others were hiding all the time.
Got the big one out and brought him to my LFS, switched him for 2 little ones. Now its more harmony, no bullying anymore, but they still dont usually swim in a school. But sometimes they do :)

 

[crazyleo]

Hi all! So I dropped in a shrimp on Wednesday after I got home from work. I tested my ammonia today and I'm at .11 ppm. Should I tested my nitrates as well, or wait till my ammonia starts to drop?

 

[keepingfishwithnoidea]

its your choice

 

[crazyleo]

Hi guys! It's been a while since my last update, so here's the scoop... I got back from Christmas with the in-laws and ammonia and nitrates are at 0 so I did my first water change and then it was off to my lfs for my first fish!

Got 2 clowns, a royal gramma, and my daughter insisted on the engineer goby who was darting around the tank with the gramma. The grammas hiding in the corner, but the other 3 are having a blast in their new home!